Zion

 I don't believe Zion will be an intentional community. I don't believe a group of people (led by a "moses" or not) will buy or overtake a plot of land and build Zion. I believe it will happen naturally. I believe that people will become zionlike in their own minds and hearts, then in their families. I believe it will spread to friends. I believe God will physically move like-minded people together in small groups, and that none of them will be thinking, "We are creating Zion."

I believe Nephi when he said he saw many small groups of people all over the planet, "armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi, chapter III, page 24 in the 1840 reprint of the Book of Mormon I have). I believe they may not even realize they are armed with righteousness, nor that they are armed with the power of God. I believe they may just think they are ordinary people. I believe these groups are "zion" even though they are not the official Zion built in the western hemisphere (likely "in the tops of the mountains" as recorded by Isaiah), with the temple that the Covenant Christians are waiting for the command to build. (See Denver Snuffer's most recent conference talk if you haven't heard of Covenant Christians.)

I believe God is working among all peoples, among all nations, quietly and diligently. I believe there may already be such groups of people as Nephi saw. I believe there will be more. And I think it possible that most of these groups will be unknown to most of the world (except to local people).

I think it's wrong and prideful to attempt to buy a piece of land for the express purpose of creating a Zion. All attempts I know, from two or three hundred years ago until today, have failed.

May we be humble and teachable before God, willing to do God's will even if it is as simple as learning not to be critical of others, and allowing people the freedom to be who they genuinely are, with out complaining that they are "trammeling on my rights" while being blissfully unaware that the truth is that we are trammeling on their rights.

May God bless all of us on this planet to be humble enough and teachable enough that not one of us is a danger to another person on the planet. 

Trammel - to deprive of freedom of action

Independent Fellowships

 Before the Lord’s appearance to the Nephites, society broke down into tribes consisting of family and friends. Immediately before the Lord’s return we should expect something similar. Therefore, part of the preparation by God’s house for coming social chaos is likely to include some preliminary preparations by families and friends to fellowship with one another in local gatherings, perhaps completely apart from control by the LDS hierarchy. Only by independently functioning can they hope to prepare for social chaos prophesied to accompany Zion and precede the Lord’s return.

page 314 40 Years in Mormonism PDF

If I were to “lead” and standardize things it would be a return to correlation. Why return to what has damaged Mormonism? It is the system that has done the damage. You cannot improve that flaw by choosing to make me your new correlator. I will not do it. It will darken your minds and would corrupt me. I am no better than you, and I believe some of you to be better than I. We need hundreds of independently functioning believers adapting the Gospel to their needs. Doctrine does not change, and the scriptures are constant. Your needs will vary. Therefore you apply what is changeless to your peculiar circumstances. You can do it better than any distant authority could possibly do it for you.

When you submit to the rule of God, you then place yourself in a position where you must be dependent upon Him. Then every one of you will immediately realize your own weakness. You will be tempted to have others tell you how to please God. You must resist that temptation. You must arise and seek Him directly. Every one of you has to grapple with the uncertainty of, “is this right or is this wrong?” Every one of you has to grapple with the fact, that in answer to some questions, there is silence. You all must be forced to choose. If you choose right, you do not know you chose what was right, because He refused to answer you. Then you act in reliance on your own decision, going forward to do what is right, only later to be told, "If you had have made the mistake, I would have corrected you. But you needed that experience.” God answers prayers. Sometimes He forces you to make choices, and very often, I can't tell you how often, but very often I make the wrong choice. It is almost like I got a compass pointing south. I often choose wrong and then I get an answer correcting me. But I got an answer because I made a mistake.

page 339-40 40 Years in Mormonism PDF

 Those who are familiar with the ten lectures in this PDF will recognize that those are words Denver Snuffer said at the beginning of what we have now. (The bold in all quotes in this post are mine.)

More and more, this movement has been heading toward one religious entity that has rules all fellowships must obey. Conferences are called, votes are taken, and all fellowships are expected to abide by the majority vote, even though we were supposed to be separate so that if one was corrupted the whole would not be corrupted.

Most recently, one fellowship (or is it just a couple of women from different fellowships? I honestly don't know) are meddling with a decision made by another (with great drama posted online so the world can see how evil and contentious some of us are) - and a vote is being called (with a lot of contention from what I hear, a lot of shutting down of opposing voices during zoom calls by one particular woman, according to a ChatGPT synopsis (I have not been involved in the arguing going on, and I trust that ChatGPT reported accurately)) that all fellowships will be expected to abide by.

 I see us heading more and more into a big group with rules all must obey. It reminds me of this quote from Denver Snuffer's blog (yes, he's talking about power, but I think it applies anyway):

If you never consolidate power into a single place but every person must stand on their own—and every person has their own volume of Scriptures, and everyone has the ability to get access to the heavens through prayer—then it doesn’t matter who you corrupt, you cannot corrupt the whole.

 https://denversnuffer.com/2024/12/corruption/

When the Covenant of Christ book came out, we were told that we had permission to keep using the Book of Mormon if we wanted to. What nonsense is this? Are we children, hidden away in dark depths from God that we cannot choose what we consider scripture?

What is all this nonsense that we have created for ourselves? Truly, as it now stands, if "one" is corrupted, the whole will also be corrupted because "the one" creates great drama and does their best to force their views on the whole. And, of course, there is Denver's role in receiving revelation for the movement, when we were supposed to come to Christ ourselves and have a personal relationship with Him so that "none need say, Know ye the Lord, for they will all know him."

Do I blame Denver for any of this? Do I blame Denver for being the go-between between us and God? I do not. He does his best to stay out of the fray, but God answers people according to their idols. He answers them according to what they insist on having.

 Let's say that I'm in a fellowship that chose to use the 1840 Book of Mormon as their Nephite scripture, never took the 2017 Boise covenant because they had a previous covenant with God, peacefully never accepted the Guide and Standard (because it was a strong man model pushed through, quoting only Joseph Smith and Denver Snuffer, or maybe for other reasons), and generally mind their own business, ignoring the drama and trauma that gets shouted from the rooftops.

Let's say I'm in one like that (I'm not). I think that fellowship is doing what fellowships were originally intended to do (be independent from rules imposed by people in other fellowships, and never having Denver as a go-between between them and God. In fact, never elevating Denver nor Stephanie to any special importance other than that Denver gave us a call to repentance that we sorely needed in the 10-lecture circuit. Respecting him as a teacher, but believing he was being honest when he said, "To the extent that anyone is trying to displace your faith in God, and attract attention to themselves, myself included, that is a perversion and it will not save you. It is a distraction, it is evil, and it is wrong. It is damnable. Anyone who tries to attract your worship, myself included, ought to be sent to hell. It's why I continually remind you, talking about me is a waste of time. Talking about the things that I'm saying, talking about the content of the scriptures, talking about the doctrines that will save you, that is very important. But you can leave me out of that. You don't ever need to mention my name again in your life." (40 Years in Mormonism PDF, page 34)

 If I'm in a fellowship and we remove a man's certificate, he is perfectly free to move to a different fellowship and seek a brand new one. Now, if his wife is unwilling to endorse him, he can't do that according to the instructions given in Lecture 10. But the bottom line in all of this is that he is not going to be able to perform ordinances in our fellowship. What we do is not the business of another fellowship.

That's all. 

 

 

 

 

Church of the Lamb of God

The Great and Abominable Church/the whore of all the earth has dominion over all the earth, among all nations kindreds, tongues, and people. This Church includes everyone who is not a part of the church of the Lamb of God. All the nations of the Gentiles fight against against the Lamb of God.

But

There is also the church of the Lamb of God (I made it small c because it isn't a legally organized entity of any kind, nor does it try to hold itself up as some kind of authority that tries to force others to obey its every whim). The people belonging to it are also all over the planet, even though there are very few of them in comparison to the earth's population.

The saints of the church of the Lamb of God and the covenant people (I find it curious that it's worded as two groups - or is it saying that the "saints" of the church of the Lamb are also the covenant people?) are armed with the righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. That description deserves a lot of humble pondering and self-introspection.

At some point, Satan will have no power because of the righteousness of the people. He has no power over their hearts. I think that also deserves a lot of humble pondering and self-introspection.

Sources: RE 1 Nephi chapter 3, paragraph 28

RE 1 Nephi chapter 7, paragraph 5

Electric power in Zion

 I have wondered if Zion would be incredibly "3rd world country," or if it would have things like electricity, and hot and cold running water.

I'd heard before about the pyramids possibly being a source of energy from pre-Egyptian times, so was interested when I came across this video in a forum I go to. ("HeckleFish" is a bit irritating, but he shuts up a bit more as you go along.)

It talks about Tesla and how he tried to imitate the creation of the power he believed the pyramids created long ago. His funding got pulled when he told the uber-ultra-rich J.P. Morgan that he wanted to make power free for everyone. The video lists all the ways in which Morgan would have ceased to make money had he continued to fund this project. It also explains the theory of how the pyramids may have made electricity.

So, I am hoping that if there's a God-fearing person who has the mind and abilities to rediscover this and create it, who is reading this post, that they will-God willing-be able to create this thing that would enable people to have free electric power, perhaps anywhere on the planet.

Conspiring Men (and Women) - and a Documentary and Book

 (All scripture references are LDS because that's what I have on my computer.)

Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 89:4)

And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 26:22)

Yea, and cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe.
(Book of Mormon | Alma 37:31)

And the regulations of the government were destroyed, because of the secret combination of the friends and kindreds of those who murdered the prophets.
(Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 7:6)

And it shall come in a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness.
(Book of Mormon | Mormon 8:27)

And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 8:22)

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 8:24)

There's a book by Mikki Willis and an author who chooses to remain anonymous for reasons of safety and income (has a family to provide for) that blows the lid of some of the secret combinations of our day. It brings to light the extent to which our current secret combinations will go to shut someone up, as well as the length to which they've gone to get billions of dollars. The book is called Plandemic. It's about the two documentaries that have been banned (Plandemic and Indoctornation), but not debunked. I would highly recommend reading this book. As of this writing it should be found online on Amazon, Thrift Books, Abe Books, Barnes and Noble, Target, and possibly other places - though they are often sold out in some of those places, in my experience.

If you are interested in watching the documentaries, they can be downloaded here at no charge. Just scroll down a ways. You are encouraged to download and share, as they have been banned from the mainstream media. There is also a 3rd documentary in the works.

What do we do when we see that secret combinations are among us, and getting the better of us? In my opinion, we repent and turn to Christ. We cease being contentious. We refuse to take up arms and kill.

 For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man. And now I, Moroni, do not write the manner of their oaths and combinations, for it hath been made known unto me that they are had among all people, and they are had among the Lamanites. And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi.

 And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.

Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.

Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 8:19-26)

If we repent and refuse to partake of the anger and violence that are around us, and are sure to get worse, this is what we can be part of:

For behold, the righteous shall not perish; for the time surely must come that all they who fight against Zion shall be cut off. And the Lord will surely prepare a way for his people, unto the fulfilling of the words of Moses, which he spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  And it shall come to pass that all those who will not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. And now I, Nephi, declare unto you, that this prophet of whom Moses spake was the Holy One of Israel; wherefore, he shall execute judgment in righteousness.

And the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded.  But it is the kingdom of the devil, which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh—For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet.

And the time cometh speedily that the righteous must be led up as calves of the stall, and the Holy One of Israel must reign in dominion, and might, and power, and great glory. And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture. And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth. And now behold, I, Nephi, say unto you that all these things must come according to the flesh. But, behold, all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people shall dwell safely in the Holy One of Israel if it so be that they will repent.
(Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 22:19-28)

(Emphases added)

Thoughts on Zion

 I've been reading the 10 lectures again. Today, I was reading near the beginning of lecture 10. In it, Denver mentioned that the BofM is more prophecy than history, and that God works according to patterns - and the pattern is that the people will divide into family and friend groups before Christ comes. 

 Before the Lord's appearance to the Nephites, society broke down into tribes consisting of family and friends. Immediately before the Lord's return we should expect something similar.

This makes sense to me, and makes me think that there won't initially be a Zion. 

Initially, after the collapse of governments, there will be groups of people living in communities and trying to survive that way. Then, later, the communities will start to war with each other and, after that, Zion will be established by those who don't want to fight the marauders or others - 

So we might be jumping the gun to think that Zion can be created by us while we are still a country so organized that we can buy and sell land, get building permits, and so on. It may very well be that none of those things will exist when God decides there are people he is ready to gather to a place that will become a city of peace called Zion.

 It could be that once God decides there are people he can move to Zion, things will happen quite quickly. Maybe even within a year - but since God usually takes his sweet time, I can't really believe I can guess any kind of timeline.

 

In case you're interested, here is more of the quote:

 Therefore, part of the preparation by God's house for coming social chaos is likely to include some preliminary preparations by families and friends to fellowship with one another in local gatherings, perhaps completely apart from control by the LDS hierarchy. Only by independently functioning can they hope to prepare for social chaos prophesied to accompany Zion and precede the Lord's return. There will also be indigenous, prophet-led people coming through God's assistance to Zion.

(Page 281 in my book called Teachings of Denver Snuffer, Volume 2)

 

Hope for humanity - Reddit post

This is so awesome that I wanted to share a couple of posts from the thread. It reminds me that God sends natural disasters so we have a chance to come together and remember what is actually important. Race, covid, politics forgotten as people pull together. The first quote is from the opening post. The other quote is one of the comments in the thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/pg9vg1/theres_still_hope_for_humankind/

I live in Southeast Louisiana and we just got slammed by one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall. Not sure how CNN or Fox News is making it out to be since we don’t have any service (currently at a family member’s house away from the damage) but this storm was bad. We’re talking worse than Katrina. A local ship captain clocked wind speeds at 172mph, the strongest ever recorded. Entire parishes wiped off the face of the earth, power outages expected to last for a month, and gas supplies dwindling. New Orleans is an absolute shitshow right now with no end in sight. They dodged a major bullet since the levees held (Corps actually got something right). Anyways I digress, back to the people.

The people in south Louisiana are a special kind of people, resilient in the face of destruction. I live in the suburbs of NOLA and everywhere you look you see utter destruction. Homes gone. Schools gone. Hospitals barely hanging on. But all around those places are people. People with smiles. People who understand. People who want to help. They don’t care what color your skin is, whether or not you’re vaccinated or who you voted for. Chances are these people lost everything just like you and are battling the same battles. Extension cords cross the streets underneath the utility company’s lines so neighbors can share their generators with those who don’t have any. Restaurants opening up just to cook all their food and give it away to those who are hungry. Whole blocks gathering and cooking all their meats so they won’t go to waste.

It’s truly something to experience a life-altering hurricane. It feels like everything has reset. I feel like I’m in a community that cares. No politics are discussed and covid fear is looooong gone. I almost wish it could be like this forever. The time spent with family and friends circled around a lantern drinking and eating is humbling and peaceful. My friendships have gone stronger, my love for my community has grown stronger, and most importantly, my hope for humanity has grown stronger.

The comment (jefftopgun):

Tennessee resident. My inlaws literally lost everything in the flooding. Talking a majority of small items from house found a mile down the creek, coffee table over 10 foot up in the trees. Flood insurance was not possible after the 2010 flood, after insurance paid out, they rezoned the flood plane to include their home, and thus eliminate their ability to renew.

Spent many days down there since. The overwhelming support, even from those who also lost everything, is truly touching. Feast for more than double the people helping pick up dropped off 3 or 4 times for every meal, no matter the objections we gave about having plenty. While its not alot, or enough for a new home, this woman literally has more money than she's ever had at one time in her life from the donations. We're hoping to build her a dream home (modest 2k sq ft bardaminium) on another piece of property they bought last year (out of harms way) and I truly hope we'll be able to trade enough sweat labor and wheel and deal a bit with some of my customers (hardwood lumber and plywood distributor) that she has a free and clear home.

Amazing how beautiful life is, and amazing people can be when the powers out, and no ones on facebook.

Hymn - Hope for Zion

This is a hymn from a hymnbook put together by a total amateur who could not afford the Adobe PDF writer program. Their heart is in the right place. (The book is to be freely given, never sold. Because they didn't have the Adobe PDF program, they couldn't rearrange the pages as they'd like, so some of the songs with two pages have to have the page turned to see the rest of the song. If this person can ever get an Adobe PDF writer, they will rearrange the songs so that all of the two-page hymns can be seen at once.) Denver's Christmas carol (O Come, Let Us Adore Him) is also in the book.

This hymn's tune matches the LDS tune of hymn #259 in the green hymn book. The words are by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, so it isn't written on the hymn. The pdf version.